Is the nforce sound quality as good as people say?

[patto]

Everybody is saying that the nforce sound is better than Live, Audigy etc. I find it hard to believe that onboard sound can be as good quality as a sound card. Yes - more features compatibility and speed but quality?

Unless you are using digital out then the sound coming out of the board/card is analogue. Naturally analogue sound is highly sensitive to interference. No matter how good the sound processor is you still need a stack of macro electronics to output good sound. Just look at how many capacitors quality sound cards have.



I would like peoples opinions on this. As I haven't purchased my nforce2 board yet.


I am talking about good music sound quality. If you don't have a good quality speaker system then you can't comment on this. And no, creative and logitech speakers aren't "good quality".

[Holst]

I wont comment.

Its as good as my SB 5.1 as far as I can tell, and thats good enough for me.

[tweaky]

Its as good as my Audigy as far as I can tell, and thats good enough for me.

[patto]

Thanks for commenting guys



However, I don't want to be insulting, but Z-560s don't have the fidelity for you to be able to judge the quality properly. They only have one driver in the satellites, no tweeter. They lack clarity in the high frequencies. The reason why I know this is that my brother is going to buy them tomorrow (great value for 4.1 speakers).


<mmm, maybe i should as in audiophile forums... Nah they'll just say tell me to forget about music on computers cause it is all crap >

[muzz]

Maybe avs forums..... they are all home theater buffs over there, and as such would be more objective.

[Áedán]

Originally posted by patto
I am talking about good music sound quality. If you don't have a good quality speaker system then you can't comment on this. And no, creative and logitech speakers aren't &quot;good quality&quot;.

Muhahahaha.... How many computer users are going to have good quality speakers?

There's no reason why an onboard CODEC cannot provide results as good as a soundcard CODEC. Both are operating in an environment that is electrically noisy, and unsuitable for such things.

Lots of capacitors does not mean good sound - Some of the better designs minimise the capacitors and use DC coupling, minimising the effects of noise, and maximising the low frequency response.

Good luck in your quest!
Áedán

[muzz]

Here is a discussion on the nforce audio in avs:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=1

[dsio]

i cant comment on sound quality myself as my music is usually too loud to hear the words but a good friend of mine recently got an 8rda (he a VST nit-picker audio freak so his thumbs up be good enough for me) and he said "it was amazingly crisp for an onboard" and that it was possibly better than his old SBlive5.1 plat.. true though you do need decent digital speakers to hear the sound the way it was intended and not pc audio junk.

dont dismiss all cheap speakers though.. i use a pair of bose studiocraft 500watters from 1984 $4000 in their day and for me $60 at a garage sale havnt seen many speaker sets come near them since

[edit] typo

[patto]

muzz, Áedán, dsio


Thanks for your friendly and helpful replies guys Especially since my posts probably didn't come off as completely friendly



*dsio - You lucky bastard! BOSE speakers for $60!! I want some BOSE.

[Jay T]

I think that soundstorm may well be the best onboard sound by a mile, but it does not sound as good as my Audigy 2 / DT3500 5.1. I don't think it supports EAX HD which gives you fantastic effects in modern games! Unless you have very good speakers I'd doubt if you would notice the quality difference, but you might see the lack of audio trickery.

I went with the Audigy 2 to utilise the digital connection to my DT3500 5.1 digital speakers.

Either way it'll rock

[EPoX Tech]

How many Sigmatel AC'97 codec PHY's on a Sound Blaster Live 1024 Platinum ?

I rest my case.

[Caper]

As far as I can tell it sounds as good as my Live 5.1.
Havent connected my Midiland 5.1 system yet but I guess it will be enough for me.

One less PCI card also, that´s good.

[wild_andy_c]

Originally posted by EPoX Tech
How many Sigmatel AC'97 codec PHY's on a Sound Blaster Live 1024 Platinum ?

I rest my case.

3 or 4 sigmatel's doing less than MCP-T if I remember correctly. Soundstorm rox.

[NervousMonkey]

It's great as long as you are not using Win98!

I have found myself, and posting with others, that the sound is great as long as you are not running Win98. I have heard of problems with Epox and Asus boards with both the manufacturer's drivers and nVidia's. The sound drivers cannot be easily installed and do not work well for nForce boards in Win98. I never though I'd say that nVidia's driver support sucks, but in Win98, it's definitely true here. People with other OSs have not had problems.

I can only hope that in the future nVidia enables sound driver installation via the setup.exe instead of requiring manual installation of poor (in Win98) sound drivers.